Garden of Eden

Ausstellung bis 4. August 2019 Schloss Neuhaus an der Donau, St. Martin im Mühlkreis

Textilkunstausstellung - 100 Werke aus 34 Nationen mit Doris Gall-Schuhmann, Anna Goldgruber, Sonja Meller und Elisa Treml

A Garden of Eden is a place of longing - a place where people live in harmony with nature, cautiously using existing resources and living peacefully. It is a utopia, a garden full of lush plants, sweet fruits and exotic animals that provide food in abundance. Such a paradise nourishes our elemental desire for harmonious coexistence in the community while at the same time embodying the principle of exclusion. The notion contains a longing for something that is ever valid as well as the experience of transience and fragility of life.
The idea of the garden in Eden is thousands of years old and finds expression in various forms of human culture in ever new variants. Even textiles were and are still important carriers of this complex topic. As an inspiration, the motto of the Garden of Eden offers material for an exhibition of a special kind: In the course of the summer symposium TEXTILE KULTUR HASLACH and the concurrent ETN (European Textile Network) Conference, tenders for an international group exhibition on this topic were invited, which will show the works of contemporary textile artists.

A total of 452 submissions were received, from which a panel of experts selected the best works. The jury consisted of the following persons:
Beatrijs Sterk (NL(DE), founder of ETN and longtime editor of the textilforum magazine
Paola Re (IT), curator and organizer of the Miniartextil in Como, Italy
Marga Persson (SE/AT), tapestry artist and longtime director of the department of textile studies at Kunstuniversität Linz
Christina Leitner and Andreas Selzer (AT), management team of the Textile Center Haslach, curators and organizers of the ETN Conference in July 2019 in Haslach

The selected works are very different in terms of the techniques and materials used and deal with the "Garden of Eden" in very different ways, resulting in a diverse view of the subject. In addition to the juried works, some well-known artists were personally invited to participate in the exhibition. The exhibition will open up a broad overview of current trends in the field of contemporary textile art and will present a total of 90 works by artists from 34 nations.

www.gardenofeden2019.org